


No Degrees of Separation

by charming1



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Angst, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, POV First Person, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-09
Updated: 2013-09-09
Packaged: 2017-12-26 02:05:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/960295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charming1/pseuds/charming1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In episode 2.12, Michael became jealous when he found out that Brian and Ben had previously hooked up at the White Party two years before. Brian offered Michael the chance to do what Michael had dreamed of for nearly seventeen years: have sex with the Great God Kinney. What if Michael had taken him up on his offer?</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Degrees of Separation

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Queer as Folk and its characters are the property of Cowlip and Showtime. No copyright infringement is intended.

I fell in love with Brian Kinney the moment I first saw him. That was nearly seventeen years ago… shit, that means Justin was in diapers when Brian and I met during our freshman year of high school. Brian had transferred to my school after getting expelled from his previous school for smashing some jock’s fingers in a locker after the jock gave him a swirlie. He walked in the door of my Algebra class and I thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. He complemented my Captain Astro pencil case, and we’ve been best friends ever since. Even if I was one of the first to admit that Brian was a selfish asshole, I trusted him to always tell me the truth.

That is, until the night that I got the shock of my life.

“Who  _haven’t_  you fucked?” I heard Ted ask Brian as Ben and I walked over to the guys, who were leaning against a pool table at Woody’s.

“Haven’t fucked me,” I reminded everyone. “Or anyone I’ve been with.”

Suddenly, Justin burst out laughing.

“What?” I asked him.

An  _oh shit_ look flashed across his face. “Nothing… nothing.”

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Ben said the last thing I ever expected. “It was me.”

I turned to look at him as Emmett and Ted clucked amused sentiments.

“Nice going, little twat,” Brian said to Justin, slapping him on the side of his head.

“I don’t believe it,” I said. Brian and Ben fucked? And Brian told Justin about them fucking and he hadn’t told me? I wanted to punch Brian’s lights out.

Instead, I faked a laugh as everyone looked at me with worried expressions. “That is so hilarious.”

“I'm glad you think so,” Ben said.

“Well, why shouldn’t I? It’s Pittsburgh… no degrees of separation.”

Ben and I kissed each other on the cheek as I tried to keep my cool. Inside, I could feel my heart breaking into a million pieces.

**********

That night I went home with Ben. As things were starting to get hot and heavy, I looked over Ben’s shoulder and imagined Brian lying in bed with us. I pushed imaginary-Brian to the floor.

“What’s up?” Ben asked, sensing that something was wrong.

Tons of questions were running though my head. When did they fuck? Where? I guessed that it had to have been at the White Party in Miami two years before, when both Ben and Brian were there. How many times did they fuck? Did Ben let Brian top him, which I haven’t done with Ben yet? Is Brian as good as they say he is?

Instead I said, “You are,” before pulling Ben’s underwear off with my teeth.

**********

“So uh, did you and Ben have a fight?” nosy-ass Ted asked me the next day at the gym.

“Or was it just like, awkward silence?” equally-nosy Emmett offered.

“Why?” I asked. “Because he and Brian had sex?”

“If he was my boyfriend, and I found out that Brian had done the dirty with him, it’d be game over,” Ted said. “I mean, how could I measure up?”

“You couldn’t,” Emmett answered.

“It’s not a problem. For Brian, sex is like a handshake,” I said.

“That ain’t what he was shaking, Sweetie,” Emmett so kindly pointed out. Thanks for reminding me, asshole.

As the boys continued to jabber on, I turned around to look at Brian and Ted’s trainer standing next to the squat bar. Only it wasn’t Ted’s trainer I saw standing with Brian… it was Ben.

Brian taking off Ben’s shirt…

“Will you two shut the fuck up?!” I barked. “Are we gonna work out, or stand around blabbing all day?” To try to distract myself, I laid down on the bench press and started a set of reps. Still, I couldn’t get the image of my best friend and my boyfriend together out of my mind.

**********

“They say his fucks are legendary… what was so great about it?” I finally asked Ben while we were in bed after he had gotten off from teaching his classes that afternoon.

“Why are you asking all these questions?” Ben asked.

“I’m just curious…”

“It’s kinda weird,” he informed me.

“I- I’m cool with it, really,” I lied as I stared into Ben’s blue eyes, hoping he would tell me something…  _anything_ ,about being with Brian _._

Finally, Ben took a breath. “He was fucking me…” Shit, do I really want to hear this? “… and he came, right? But I hadn’t.” I  _don’t_  want to hear this. “So he just… kept going.”

“No shit,” was the only thing I could say as Ben kissed me on my chest.

“And then he came a second time, right when I did.” He paused to lick my lips, as if he wasn’t talking about being fucked by my best friend. “He never lost his hard on.”

“Mmm… you had to ask,” I heard Brian’s voice say. I looked up and imagined Brian lying at the foot of the bed, smoking a cigarette. I could almost smell the smoke.

After asking Ben how Brian compared to me, he started talking about apples and cantaloupes, telling me I was “fine.” On the verge of tears, I had to get the hell out of there, claiming I had to go and work at the comic book store.

**********

I was doing some paperwork at the store that evening when Brian walked in, coming by to pick me up for Babylon.

“So you were never gonna tell me?” I asked him after he finished making fun of the comic book I had been working on.

“Tell you what?”

“You know Goddamn well.”

“It was two years ago, who gives a shit?” he said in his usual blasé tone. “I don’t, he doesn’t, why do you?” Brian accused me of being jealous. “But are you jealous because  _I_  did it with  _him_ … or  _he_ did it with  _me_?”

“Why should I give a shit if he slept with you?” I asked, although we both knew full well that I  _did_ give a shit. “Who hasn’t?”

“You,” Brian said.

A few seconds later, he walked to the door, flipped the  _open_ sign over to  _closed_ , locked the door, and pressed me against the wall.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He answered by reaching down and cupping my dick through my jeans. “You wanna know what it’s like?” he asked. I shook my head, but he continued, “Well come on…” I closed my eyes for a second. “You know you want it.”

Then he was kissing me, his hand still on my dick, which was quickly coming to life. I kissed him back for a few seconds, but then I pulled away from him and stared into his hazel eyes.

He was right… I did want it.

The next thing I knew, we were on the couch in the back room of my store. Brian was on top of me, his tongue in my mouth and his hand down my pants. I had never forgotten the day that Brian and I jerked each other off all those years ago. Okay, we didn’t get off, because Ma so rudely interrupted us before either of us came, but that was the first sexual experience I had ever had.

_You never got off. That’s why you’re still hanging around him after all these years_ ,I remembered Justin telling me the night after he and Brian first met. Although I mainly hung out with Brian because I enjoyed being around him, Justin wasn’t wrong. To this day, I still jerked off thinking about how it was to have Brian’s hand on my dick. I always hoped that one day his hands would be on my naked body again.

I pulled Brian’s leather jacket off and tossed it onto the floor. Our shirts soon joined it, followed by our shoes, socks, pants, and underwear. I reached between us and wrapped my hand around Brian’s rock hard cock.

_The artist has taken some liberties._

_It’s a perfect likeness. You haven’t seen it in a long time._

_I haven’t seen_ Gone With the Wind  _in a long time, but I still know that it’s three-and-a-half hours…_

I take that comment back.  Brian had an impressive dick when he was fourteen, but at thirty, it’s bigger than I remembered it being. Even bigger than Ben’s, which is nothing to sneeze at. Hell, it might be the biggest I’ve ever had inside me.

_Holy shit_ , Brian’s about to be inside me…

“You sure you want this?” Brian asked, as if he was reading my thoughts.

I put my other hand on the back of his neck and pulled him back down to kiss me. He produced a condom, which he probably got out of his jeans pocket. Carrying a condom with him was as natural to Brian as carrying around his keys and wallet. I took the condom out of his hand, tore the wrapper open, and rolled it on him.

“I don’t have any lube,” he said.

“It’s okay… I want to feel it,” I panted, suddenly shaking in anticipation.

I yelled out in pain as he began to stick it in, but bucked my hips up to encourage him to continue. He lifted my legs over his shoulders and drove the rest of the way inside. Soon, I was feeling nothing but ecstasy as he pounded into me, folding me in half to continue to kiss me.

“God, Brian, I love you,” I whispered against his mouth.

“You too, Mikey,” he answered. “Always have… always will.”

**********

I walked into the diner a little earlier than usual the next morning, hoping that none of the guys would be there yet. After seeing none of the usual suspects around, I sat at the counter and, although I knew the Liberty Diner menu by heart, picked up a menu and began to read the breakfast items.

“Morning, Sweetheart,” Ma greeted before pouring me a cup of coffee. I knew that she was probably still angry at me after bringing Ben over to her house for dinner unannounced a few weeks before, and we hadn’t talked much since.

“Hey, Ma,” I said back, an involuntary smile creeping onto my face. Her t-shirt of the day read “Uranus or bust!”

“Why do you look so happy?” she asked, immediately noticing. “You can’t be that happy to see  _me_.”

I shrugged. “No reason.”

She squinted at me. “Bullshit, I’m your mother.” As if that explains it all… “What the fuck’s going on?”

“I’m not allowed to smile?” I asked as I looked back at the menu and willed my cheeks to relax. “Get me the short stack, over easy with bacon.”

She was about to put my order in when Justin burst through the swinging door from the kitchen, carrying a bus tub. I stared down into my coffee cup after he began bussing a table behind me.

“Now what’s that about?” Ma asked.

“What’s what about?” I mumbled as I poured some sugar into my coffee.

Ma looked at me like I was an idiot. “You walked in here with a big shit eating grin on your face, then it disappeared when Sunshine came in… what the fuck did you do to him?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you guys fighting?”

“No!” I yelled, now feeling all eyes in the room on me.

“Sunshine!” Ma yelled over to Justin. “Get your bubble butt over here.”

A moment later, Justin sat at the empty stool next to me on my right. “Yeah, Deb?”

“Whatever shit that’s going on between the two of you, knock it off,” Ma demanded, pointing a red finger nail at both of us.

Justin looked at me curiously. “What the fuck’s she talking about?”

Like clockwork, the bell over the door rang. I slid my eyes over to my left to see who was walking in, and I almost wasn’t surprised to see that it was Brian. He was dressed in a tan suit, which he looked absolutely edible in.

“Hey,” I said to him as he walked over, my smile quickly returning. I could feel Ma’s eyes burning into me.

Without acknowledging me, Brian walked around me and gave Justin a kiss… with tongue. “Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked Justin. “I could have given you a ride.”

“You rode me hard enough last night,” Justin said before giving Brian another sloppy kiss.

Unable to witness another second of that, I stood up and stomped out of the diner. I began walking in the direction of the comic book store, choking back tears.

“Mikey!” I heard Brian yell behind me a few seconds later.

“What the fuck, Brian?” I yelled after turning around to face him. “You fuck me last night, and then you go home and fuck Justin? Then you come into the diner this morning and make out with him right in front of me?”

He sighed. “Mikey… last night-”

“What?” I asked, tears starting to stream down my cheeks. “Are you gonna stand there and pretend like it didn’t happen? That it didn’t mean anything?”

He shook his head. “I was afraid this would happen… Mikey, last night was a one-time thing… it was just a fuck, that’s all.”

“But…” I said, my lips quivering. “You said you loved me.”

Brian chuckled. “Mikey, you wanted to know what it was like to be with me. Well, now you know.”

“So that’s it?” I asked. “I cheated on Ben with you, and-”

“You did what?” I hear Ben’s voice ask behind Brian. As Brian turned to look, we both saw that Justin and my mother weren’t standing too far behind Ben.

**********

“How the fuck could you have let this happen?” Ma roared as she paced in front of the coffee table at her house later that evening.

“Mind your own fucking business, Deb,” Brian said from his place in the armchair in the corner.

“The two of you  _are_ my fucking business!” she yelled at him. “And it’s my business when Sunshine is upstairs in his old room, crying his eyes out over what the two of you did.”

“ _My_ old room,” I mumbled.

“You!” she yelled, leaning over the coffee table to get in my face. “I’m not surprised that you let this happen… it’s no secret that you’ve wanted this since you first met Brian. But you!” she screeched, now directing her anger towards Brian. “ _You_  should have known better.”

Brian held his hands out in a  _what did I do?_ motion.

“How dare you fuck my son like he was another one of your tricks!” she yelled. “Did you think that he wouldn’t want more after that? And did you think that Sunshine wouldn’t have cared?”

“Who I fuck is none of his damned business,” Brian said. “Or anyone else’s.”

“When it’s your best friend you’re fucking, it  _is_  my business!” Justin said as he walked down the stairs.

“You fucked Daphne, and I didn’t care,” Brian reminded him.

“You fucked Daphne?” Ma asked Justin. “When?”

“One afternoon when I still lived here,” Justin said. “Before prom.”

“You fucked a  _girl_  in  _my_  house?” Ma asked in a surprised tone.

“That was probably the first time a girl has  _ever_ been fucked in this house,” Brian said with a chuckle.

“Shut up, asshole!” Ma yelled at him. “I’m not through with you yet.”

“Well,  _I’m_ through with him!” Justin announced.

“Justin,” Brian said, standing up to walk over to him.

“You know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you want, Sunshine,” Ma said.

“You’re coming home with me, where you belong,” Brian said to Justin as he reached out to him.

Justin swatted his hands away. “Don’t fucking touch me!” he yelled. “How could you have done this?” Turning to look at me, he asked, “And how could you do this to Ben?”

Ma snorted. “Ben…”

“That asshole’s lucky I didn’t call the cops on him,” Brian said as he gingerly patted the bruise under his left eye.

“You deserved to be punched,” Justin said to him. “I shouldn’t have even helped pull him off of you.”

Hearing Ben’s name made me feel like absolute shit. “I’m gonna go talk to him,” I said as I moved towards the front door.

“He said he never wants to see you again,” Justin reminded me.

“Which is certainly not the worst thing that could happen…” Ma mumbled.

“Fuck you!” I screamed at my mother before walking out of her house.

**********

I opened my bedroom door the next morning and found Emmett sitting on the couch, tying his shoes.

“Hey, Baby,” he said to me in a hushed voice.

“What are you doing up so early?” I asked as I walked over to the kitchen to put on some coffee.

“Teddy asked me to come in early to do a ‘Wake-up Wack’ on the site. He’ll be here to pick me up any minute. So uh, did Ben ever call you back?”

I shook my head sadly as he joined me in the kitchen. After standing outside of Ben’s apartment building and pushing his buzzer for ten minutes, I called his cell and was sent straight to voicemail. After that, I came home and confessed to Emmett what Brian and I had done.

“Well, I can’t say I blame him,” Emmett said. “You really fucked up.”

“I know,” I said before someone knocked on the door. Hoping that it was Ben, I ran over and yanked the door open.

It was Ted. “Morning,” he said to me, avoiding eye contact. “You ready, Em?”

“You called and told him last night, didn’t you?” I asked Emmett.

“Yeah, but by now I’m sure  _everyone_  has heard,” Emmett said. “Especially since you announced it in front of the entire street yesterday.”

I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorway. “Well?” I said to Ted. “Go ahead.”

“Go ahead and what?” he asked.

“Tell me how stupid I am for cheating on Ben with Brian; everyone else has.”

Ted walked into the apartment and took a seat at the table. He began to speak as I closed the door. “You know I wasn’t too crazy about you being with Ben, but I thought that he was a nice guy, despite the HIV. He certainly didn’t deserve what you did to him, though.”

I took one of the other chairs. “I know…”

“Then why’d you do it?” Ted asked.

Emmett snorted. “Please… who  _wouldn’t_  fuck Brian Kinney, if given the opportunity? In fact…” He finished the sentence by waggling his eyebrows at Ted.

Ted’s mouth dropped. “What? Did  _you_ fuck Brian?”

“No,” Emmett said regrettably. “But he told us about that time after John-John’s plane went down.”

“Shit,” Ted said, covering his face with his hands. “But… but nothing  _really_ happened.”

“But you  _tried_  to fuck him,” I said.

“Well, Brian’s not  _my_ best friend,” Ted said, defending himself. “And I didn’t have a boyfriend at the time.”

“And neither did Brian,” Emmett added, shaking his head. “Poor Justin…”

“Justin is  _not_ Brian’s boyfriend,” I snapped.

“Oh, wake up, Michael,” Emmett snapped back. “He is, too.”

I sighed. “Well, whatever Justin was before the other night, he’s not anymore.”

Emmett inhaled sharply. “You mean…?”

I nodded. “Justin’s probably moving back in with my mom as we speak.”

Emmett bit his bottom lip, his eyes beginning to well up. “Oh my God… things are never going to be the same, are they?”

“The four of us were friends way before Justin ever entered the picture,” I reminded him.

“You honestly think that you and Brian can go back to being friends after this?” Ted asked.

I shook my head and closed my eyes.

**********

I opened my eyes and saw Brian standing in front of me. “You know you want it,” he said.

Then he was kissing me, his hand still on my dick, which was quickly coming to life. I kissed him back for a few seconds, but then I pulled away from him and stared into his hazel eyes.

I took a few shaky breaths. “Get out of here,” I whispered.

He turned to unlock the door, but leaned in to tell me, “I know your secret identity.” Then he was gone.


End file.
